TIDMIVO
RNS Number : 6116S
Touchstone Innovations PLC
04 October 2017
4 October 2017
Touchstone Innovations plc
Touchstone invests GBP1.4m in GBP16.5m funding round in
Featurespace, the machine learning fraud prevention company
Touchstone Innovations plc (AIM: IVO, 'the Group', 'Touchstone')
has participated in a GBP16.5m funding round in Featurespace
Limited ("Featurespace" or "the Company"), a leading
machine-learning, fraud prevention company.
Touchstone has committed GBP1.4 million to the round, which was
led by Highland Europe. The round was also supported by Worldpay
Group plc, a leading global payment processing company, and Invoke
Capital, a technology investment company. The new funding will
enable Featurespace to drive revenues of its product platform and
to continue to expand internationally.
Following this new investment, Touchstone will hold a 27.9%
interest in the Company. The current valuation, including this
investment is GBP15.6 million.
Featurespace, based in Cambridge, is an Adaptive Behavioural
Analytics company that is addressing the fast-growing fraud
detection and prevention market. According to MarketsandMarkets,
this market was worth $14.8bn in 2014 and is growing at 18% per
annum.
The Company has developed a machine learning software platform,
ARIC(TM), that identifies abnormal behaviour in high-volume,
real-time customer interactions. Through analysing every individual
customer interaction and understanding normal behaviour,
Featurespace helps to protect customers from fraud attack, and
reduces the costs of lost transactions.
Featurespace has developed an ambitious growth plan, which
focuses on expanding further within the UK and the USA. The
business recently opened offices in North Carolina and New York,
and last year signed a deal with TSYS, one of the largest payments
processors in the US, in which Featurespace's adaptive behavioural
analytics platform is being used to reduce fraud for TSYS' clients.
The injection of new capital from this funding round will enable
the Company to pursue further sales through this channel as well as
direct sales to new customers in both existing and new markets.
Martina King, CEO of Featurespace, said:
"We are working with our clients to protect businesses and
consumers in the fight against fraud. This funding round will
enable us to continue to grow our business internationally,
building on our progress as a leader in machine learning fraud
prevention."
Jon Edington, Director of Technology Ventures at Touchstone
Innovations, added:
"Featurespace is a business with world-class machine-learning
technology married to a management team with an excellent track
record, and has the potential to be a substantial international
entity.
"The evolution and development of Featurespace is a classic
example of our approach.
"We initially worked with the late Professor Bill Fitzgerald who
was head of signal processing and applied statistics at the
University of Cambridge and Dave Excell, his PhD student, to
develop the technology and concept and made our initial investment
into the Company in 2012.
"Subsequently, we have continued to support the business with
further funding as well as helping to recruit the management team
with the right expertise and experience.
"More recently we have sought to build a strong syndicate around
the business, widening the pool of investors and bringing in
industry expertise.
"Today's news reflects the growing maturity of the business and
its potential for growth."
-Ends-
For further information contact:
Touchstone Innovations plc 020 3053 8834
Russ Cummings, Chief Executive Officer
Jon Davies, Director of Communications
Instinctif Partners 020 7457 2020
Adrian Duffield/Melanie Toyne-Sewell/Chantal
Woolcock
J.P. Morgan Cazenove (Nominated Adviser) 020 7742 4000
Michael Wentworth-Stanley/Alec Pratt
RBC Capital Markets 020 7653 4000
Darrell Uden/Marcus Jackson/Laura White
About Touchstone Innovations - www.touchstoneinnovations.com
Touchstone Innovations plc ("Touchstone" formerly Imperial
Innovations Group plc) creates, builds and invests in pioneering
technology companies and licensing opportunities developed from
outstanding scientific research from the Golden Triangle, the
region broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford.
This area has an unrivalled cluster of outstanding academic
research and technology businesses, and is home to four of the
world's top 10 universities, as well as leading research
institutions, the cream of the UK's science and technology
businesses and many of its leading investors.
Touchstone supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the
commercialisation of their ideas through protecting and licensing
out intellectual property (through its Technology Transfer
subsidiary, Imperial Innovations Limited), by leading the formation
of new companies, by recruiting high-calibre management teams and
by providing investment and encouraging co-investment. Touchstone
remains an active investor over the life of its portfolio
companies, with the majority of Touchstone's investment going into
businesses in which it is already a shareholder.
Since becoming a public company in 2006, Touchstone has raised
more than GBP440.0 million of equity from investors, which has
enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come
out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has a GBP74.4
million term debt facility from the European Investment Bank
(EIB).
Between Touchstone's admission to AIM (August 2006) and 31 July
2017, Touchstone has invested a total of GBP372.4 million across
its portfolio companies, currently valued at GBP461.1 million and
in addition has generated GBP51.0 million of cash realisations. In
aggregate, Touchstone's portfolio, excluding Apollo Therapeutics
and UCL Technology Fund, has collectively raised investment of more
than GBP1.7 billion.
About Featurespace - www.featurespace.co.uk
Featurespace(TM) is the world-leader in Adaptive Behavioral
Analytics and creator of the ARIC(TM) platform, a real-time machine
learning software system developed out of the University of
Cambridge.
The ARIC(TM) platform - a real-time, machine learning software
system - monitors individual behaviors to catch new fraud attacks
as they happen. At the same time, the increased accuracy of
understanding customer behavior reduces the number of genuine
customers whose purchases and transactions are incorrectly
declined.
Featurespace is based in Cambridge, UK, and the Company has
deployed ARIC(TM) to organizations that have services or products
deployed in over 180 countries.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
MSCFSUFMDFWSEFS
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 04, 2017 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Touchstone Innovations (LSE:IVO)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De May 2024 a Jun 2024
Touchstone Innovations (LSE:IVO)
Gráfica de Acción Histórica
De Jun 2023 a Jun 2024
